Rambling reader

I read both of these books in Alison Gaylin's Samantha Leiffer series back to back.

Samantha is a preschool teacher by day and a ticket seller at an off-off-Broadway theater by night.

In Hide your eyes, Samantha finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses something that looks fishy to her. Two people are pushing an ice chest off the pier. She has a strong feeling that they are doing more than littering.

It isn't until the police find the ice chest and discover it's grisly contents that they start to take her seriously.

In You kill me, Samantha receives a cryptic warning that she is in danger. She doesn't believe it until people connected to her start to die. Then there is that nagging feeling that she is being watched. Someone close to her is moving in for the kill.

Samantha is a great character. She also has her quirky theater friends, the cute kids at the preschool, the cops working the cases, and a mother who is a self-help guru.

Top off the great characters with complex plots that twist and turn and keep you guessing right up to the end and you have great stories.

Both of these books are highly recommended.

This is Chris Grabenstein's second novel about Sea Haven, NJ and partners Ceepak and Boyle.

The stories are told from the viewpoint of Danny Boyle who started working for the small tourist town's police force as a part-time summer cop. Danny is young and looks up to Officer John Ceepak, a former military, spit and shine, kind of cop. Ceepak has high expectations of himself and all around him. Boyle understands he can't always live up to Ceepak's expectations but tries really hard.

In the first book, Tilt-a-whirl, Ceepak and Boyle solve a high profile murder at the local amusement park, on the Tilt-a-whirl naturally. (Don't ask why there is a roller coaster on the bright pink cover. I can't imagine.)

In Mad Mouse, the title referring once again to a park amusement which does not grace the cover, someone is shooting paint balls at Boyle and his friends on the beach. When the paint balls are replaced with live rounds in subsequent incidents, it becomes aparent that Danny and his friends are the intended victims, not just random targets.

Who might one of them angered enough to cause this. What do the trading cards left at the scenes mean? Can they figure it out before one of them ends up dead?

I enjoy these books very much. The crimes are serious but seeing the world through Danny's eyes lightens them up considerably. Danny's goal for the end of the summer is to be the one summer cop who gets hired on full time. He is idealistic, optimistic and a bit naive. Ceepak has seen so much more of the world and has no such limitations, however we only understand Ceepak as well as Danny can understand him.

Sea Haven is a fun place to visit and I snap these up as soon as they are released.

Karin Slaughter steps out of her Grant County series this year with a standalone.

We follow an Atlanta cop and an FBI agent, who aren't certain they can trust each other, as they investigate the mutilation death of a prostitute. There are possible links to some recent similar crimes and a newly released convict who served 22 years for another similar crime. There isn't much else I can say that won't give away too much of the intricate plot.

All of the characters are damaged and so very human. Each of them leaps off the page at you.

Slaughter is my absolute favorite author. Everything she has written is edgy with a dark twist. She is especially adept at the "gotcha" moments. She allows you to meander off in one direction only to yank you back and make you gasp as you realize your mistake. I never peek ahead in one of her books. Getting to the end her way is the best way.

PJ Tracy is back with the Monkeewrench crew. I'm not certain why these books get called the Monkeewrench series since the two cops are really the main characters and the Monkeewrench employees are second stringers, but they are.

Gino Rolseth and Leo Magozzi are Minneapolis detectives. Gino has been roped into participating in a snowman building contest for charity. With the park full of kids and their snowmen, dead bodies are found inside two of the snowmen.

Gino and Magozzi are off to figure out whether the two men were targeted or just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When all the leads keep taking them back to a rural county north of the metro area, they come into contact with the new county sheriff, the woman is serving her first day on the job after being elected to the position. Her previous experience is as a 911 dispatcher, not a cop.

This series just keeps getting better with each novel. The authors are a mother and daughter team and are wonderful in person. Go see them if the opportunity presents itself.

Well, I'm running a little behind here. I think I'm about 4 books ahead of this now. Too much reading, not enough commenting.

Tara has been robbing banks with her father, Wyatt, since she was nine years old. Wyatt came up with the 47 rules to teach Tara the business. When they come into a small Arizona town to rob the bank, Tara falls in love with Max, the son of the local sheriff. When she runs off with him, Wyatt takes up the chase to bring her back. Also after all of them are two FBI agents, Max's father, and a couple of Wyatt's former partners.

Troy Cook's first novel is a fun romp with characters that blur the lines between good and bad. The good guys sometimes break the law and the bad guys try to do the right thing. Everyone is a little dysfunctional but that only adds to the fun.

This book is not part of a series. Troy's second book will also be a standalone and it is due out next summer.

Frank Zaphiro is the author of this character driven novel. I tried to explain the plot to a friend and the best I could do was say it was very much like the old Hill Street Blues TV show.

Zaphiro recounts the daily job for the cops in a fictional town called River City. We follow their daily lives, both personal and professional, and their interactions with each other. There is a man nicknamed Scarface hitting convenience stores in town and they are always on the lookout for him to stop his string of robberies. There is also a gang member vowing to kill one of the cops.

It was very interesting to see the day to day workings of a police department. The characters are very well drawn and come to life off the page.

A plot is almost non-existent but somehow I didn't miss it. A couple of times I attempted to skip ahead but couldn't bring myself to do it. It is compelling reading.

JA Konrath is on a huge tour this summer attempting to get to 500 bookstores with his new book, Rusty Nail.

The main character of his series is named Jacqueline Daniels. Everyone calls her Jack. This allows Konrath to come up with a list of great book titles all named for drinks made with Jack Daniels whiskey; Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, and next year, Dirty Martini.

Jack is in the middle of a personal crisis in this book. Her mother is in a coma after the events in the last book, her love life is in shambles after she and her boyfriend broke up, and her partner on the job is having some health related problems of his own.

Amidst all this, Jack is hunting for someone who sent her a snuff film. It is just like the films made by the Gingerbread Man in Whiskey Sour, but that killer is dead. The victim's head is covered but Jack is certain she knows her identity leading her into territory she though was dead and buried.

Konrath has a talent for mixing humor with horror. The scenes with the killer are always creepy and sometimes I read them with one eye closed. They can be a bit graphic. I have heard that some people who are squeemish actually skip those parts. (Do you know there are people who actually skip prologues just because they aren't named Chapter 1??) The humor is natural, never forced, and is expressed in normal, everyday situations and conversations.

If your tolerance level for creepy is quite low, Konrath may not be a good choice for you. But, the rest of you should check out the Jack Daniels series. I recommend them.

I absolutely love Ken Bruen's books. I'm not sure I can explain why. They are deceptively thin and a quick read. His writing is lean and every word and sentence are necessary. Don't blink or you might miss something.

Calibre is the sixth in the Brant series. The Southeast London cops are looking for a serial killer who chooses his victims randomly among the rude people he meets in his daily life. Also, Falls and McDonald are trying to get back into the good graces of the department after problems they each had in previous books. Brant is actually trying to write a crime novel.

Brant is up to his usual deeds, creating trouble for those around him, fixing problems that only he can fix, and managing to do all the right things to solve the case. He is the character you hate to love. He is a good cop but believes the ends justify the means and isn't above bending, or breaking, a few rules. He is also a bit of a sociopath.

I've also read all of Bruen's Jack Taylor books which I think are more brooding, darker. I like them just as much but I seem to have a soft spot for Brant.

I picked up this book, the first in Steve Brewer's Bubba Mabry series, because I heard the movie version was about to start filming. Bubba is played by Jay Mohr. I can definitely see him in the part.

Bubba is a displaced southern boy from Mississippi now working as a private investigator in Albuquerque. He is hired to do a bit of surveillance on a fan who is harassing a celebrity. The celebrity turns out to be Elvis Presley. Yeah, the dead one.

Well, Bubba soon finds out the fan is actually a tabloid reporter who recognized Elvis and plans to expose him. But Elvis is trying to stay dead.

When a couple of bodies appear, and Elvis has left the building, Bubba has to figure out what is really going on as the police have him down as the prime suspect in the murders. If he tries to say Elvis hired him, they will throw him in the looney bin.

I liked Bubba a lot. I wasn't too sure about the whole "Elvis lives" theme but if you can suspend reality enough to accept that Elvis is still alive, and wouldn't want anyone to know that, this is a fun story. After all, the taboids already want us to believe he's been sighted.

There are five more books after this one and several others not in this series. I'll be looking for all of them.

Anne Seymour is a reporter working the case of a dead college girl who moonlighted for an escort service. Following the trail to her regular customers leads Anne into a web of crooked city employees, laundered money, and a connection that's a little too close to home.

Complicating Anne's personal and professional life are a tenacious cub reporter, her meddling lawyer mother, a hot private investigator, and her long-term boyfriend who happens to be the lead investigator on the girl's death.

I generally like to take notes while I read a book. How else can I remember the important stuff when it can be a year or two between series entries? This book was moving so fast with twists and turns everywhere that I completely forgot to write anything down.

Karen E Olson has created a smart, witty, lovable character who depite her faults, worms her way right into your heart. She is just snoopy enough, just careful enough, and just cynical enough to be realistic. I'd take her out for white clam pizza anytime.

The second book in this series will be out in September. It is called Secondhand Smoke.

My bookmark reluctantly gave up on Mario Acevedo's book about halfway through. It had such promise. It was also a Booksense Notable Pick for April 2006.

Felix Gomez is a former soldier who served in the Middle East. He was bitten by a vampire while there and returned home, now a vampire himself, to become a private investigator. Just imagine the possibilities of a PI with superhuman vampire powers and military training.

Yeah well, those possibilities weren't here. The dialog was choppy, the characters were two-dimensional, the plot was getting silly despite the nymphomaniacs, and Felix just had too much angst about drinking human blood.

I read to approximately the midpoint of the book, then jumped to the end to see if the story was going anywhere. The last chapter convinced me I didn't need to see what happened in between. I really didn't care how it got there.

I will try his second book, X-Rated Blood Suckers, out next spring. I still think this premise has potential.

Jeff Shelby's second novel in his Noah Braddock series is even better than the first. I read Killer Swell a couple of weeks ago and posted my comments here. I ordered this second book even before finishing the first.

Peter Pluto asks Noah to look for his brother, Linc, who is missing. Noah was recommended to him by a mutual friend so Noah feels some responsibility to take the case. It turns out the reason Peter wants the police kept off the case is because Linc was mixed up with some white supremacists.

When Noah is beat up by two of the supremacists and shot at by some local gang members the case becomes much more confusing and terribly personal. Mixed somewhere in all of this is a cache of guns found in Linc's apartment.

On a personal level, Noah is attempting to reconcile with both his estranged alcoholic mother, and Liz, the cop Noah has dated off an on for some time.

Carter returns as Noah's backup and muscle and Noah becomes friendlier with Liz's partner, Wellton, this time around.

I highly recommend Jeff Shelby's books. Run out and get both of them!